Marisa Kabas: Holy shit: When Will Lewis was newly-hired Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, he offered NPR media reporter David Folkenflik an exclusive story about the paper's future in exchange for him killing a story about Lewis' involvement in covering up criminal activity at Rupert Murdoch's tabloids.

Holy shit: When Will Lewis was newly-hired Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, he offered NPR media reporter David Folkenflik an exclusive story about the paper's future in exchange for him killing a story about Lewis' involvement in covering up criminal activity at Rupert Murdoch's tabloids.

'Washington Post' publisher tried to kill a story about allegations against him. It wasn’t the first time.www.npr.org The Post's new CEO Will Lewis tried to stop the paper from publishing a story about allegations he faces in Britain. It wasn't the first time he's attempted to head off unwanted coverage. I know, beca...

Read my analysis:

The Washington Post is in fascist-guided free fallwww.thehandbasket.co Former Murdoch employees have taken over. Now corruption and scandal abound.

"I believe that in today’s evangelical, pro-family movement, I think Israel rivals the [pro-]life issue in their hierarchy of concerns." Israel, a nation that has public (tax payer) health care where women can get abortion care for free. Everything Evangelicals are against in the USA.

I hadn't seen that about Soon-Shiong, gonna cancel my subscription to the LA Times in the morning.

I’m just gonna keep reposting this. WaPo is dead.

The New York Times and Washington Post are dead. You are only harming journalism by patronizing them. Support independent journalists. Subscribe to Flaming Hydra. Support Cool Zone Media. Subscribe to the Patreon of that podcast that always keeps you fill in. We need a change.

also subscribe to the handbasket! www.thehandbasket.co

Yes, sorry, I can’t believe I missed that incredibly obvious opportunity to shout out your work 😅

Am current subscriber and highly recommend this one ☝🏾

thank you!!

☝️

I hate that you're right (WaPo is one of my hometown papers), but I can't make a coherent argument otherwise.

Seems bad.

Also, maybe we need more independent journalists to prevent this kind of stuff from happening. 🤷‍♂️

Exactly.

Murdoch alum, how many stories will this guy catch and kill and we'll never know about

Setting aside the whole part where this is unethical, it also seems like… not a great deal? Why would Folkenflik take that offer? "An exclusive story about the paper's future" just means first crack at the press release.

How about instead of a huge story about corruption involving a bunch of famous people, I give you a boring story no one cares about?

Basically

God, how fucking embarrassing. “Drop the story about how I helped Rupert Murdoch cover up crime and shittiness and I’ll give you a big, fat commercial for me in return!”

Apparently Lewis did NO research on David Folkenflik, who is about the least likely journalist to accept such an offer.

I'm certainly now a Folkenflik fan.

Time to write some Folken Filk

That's what I came here to say, too. Clearly Lewis had no idea who he was talking to.

Welp. Just cancelled my Post subscription.

When I canceled my WaPo & NYT subs, I gave the extra money to @npr.org & doubled my monthly sustaining membership.

I’ve been giving more and more to Chicago media orgs as I get annoyed by more and more national outlets.

is there anyone who runs a major newspaper who is just normal

no. we learned that from Newsies.

my first day at my first reporting job, the editor sat me down and explained that mistakes are normal and we try to correct them but that surreptitiously keeping a friend or acquaintance’s name out of the paper was a fireable offense 🔥

Bezos is no man of virtue, so he probably won't get what a massive breach if ethics this is. But Lewis plainly made repeated quid pro quo offers to kill a story that reflects badly on him. He has to go. @washingtonpost.com

Usually when a story gets killed it’ll be in exchange for something better, not a keynote powerpoint

Ha the “future of the paper” as if I give a fuck. You better give me Murdoch’s nudes or something and even then I’ll still leak the story

Fuckin right

Im offering you an EXCLUSIVE wall of buzzword gibberish

Saved NPR the trouble of doing the interview by clearly explaining the paper's future direction by example.

Time to visit @washingtonpost.com & start asking in the replies "When is Will Lewis resigning?"

How soon is now?

A form of bribery by a right-winger (and we're not talking about Republicans on the Supreme Court. Did Lewis learn it from Trump, "I need you to de me a favor, though" (in order to get aid again)?

I feel like anyone who has worked directly for Murdoch is well versed in bribery. Being a piece of shit is a requirement

Some days I'm amazed at how much so many people suck.

Hey it didn't work for Bill Cosby, I might as well try it.

This is why we need cat photos, otters, horses…otherwise we’d all lose our will to carry on.

I’ve read about normal UK citizens who were hacked & had their lives destroyed by Murdoch’s people & their corruption knows no bounds. When Prince Harry began standing up to him, many of his closest friends also had their lives destroyed as does anyone who stands up to Murdoch in the UK.

The WAPO is a typical #MSM POS now and will only get worse after this move.

I want to support national news too, but what's left? I just canceled my WAPO subscription and upgraded my subscription for The Handbasket. Thank you for all that you do!

I cancelled "yikes we need dependable journalism!" 2015 subs to NYT and WaPO a while back b/c of their shitty trans stuff & terrible editorials. Funding @propublica.bsky.social and @theprospect.bsky.social instead as of this week.

I've been wondering how "deep" Lewis might be in the dark info-wars of who gets what in the media. So far, he sounds no different than some cheap tabloid trash king.

We have fostered an “Art of the Deal” culture that frames success in transactional relationships as if it were the pinnacle of self-actualization.

Anyone who works for Murdochs UK newspapers is basically a sleaze

Yikes

Is that bad? That sounds bad.